Games You Played Today: Actress Again: Current Code (Part 1)

I’m very curious about this because I love bug shit. The stuff I’ve seen just doesn’t look very strong. I feel like I’m missing something or maybe I’m just rooting for it because we need more bug shit.

Too bad it’s tied up with Dangen Entertainment :confused:

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I think I am missing something: what do you mean by that?

incredibly sus publisher, i mostly know about them never paying the Devil Engine devs, but i think there was other things too

Yeah, it’s not the dev’s fault at all (and the game does look good!), it’s just that the game’s publisher, Dangen Entertainment, has come under a whole lot of heat in the last year or so.

There’s a letter authored by a woman who worked with the company that goes into this nitty gritty out there, but this Kotaku article more or less covers it.

Just kinda out there with seeing games published by Nicalis and going “ah jeez.”

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Metroid Samus Returns sucks shit. How did they fuck it up this bad

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I don’t know why but I really want to play this. I haven’t even played Metroid 2 but I am just so curious about this one.

i’m definitely more curious than i am about asmr

err… am2r

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i have played pieces of several of these games and largely don’t like any of them (including Shovel Knight by the way - do not understand what people like about that game. and no don’t explain it to me, lol, i’ve already had enough of those conversations). i played some of both the Messenger and Axiom Verge during random IGF judging and was quite baffled to see how popular both games ended up being. Katana Zero is another one i’ve played some of that i truly fail to understand the appeal of. i guess it’s not for me!!

i mean re: metroidvanias i’ve beat Hollow Knight (i thought it was pretty good overall!) and got very far into Environmental Station Alpha (very difficult, but i did like a lot about it) but i don’t consider those pure retro-aping since they have some more modern design stuff going on in them. Knytt Underground is another one i beat last year and i thought it was a very interesting/unique game in a lot of parts and felt distinct from a lot of that genre. i’m not overall a big fan of metroidvanias esp as aping their tropes has become ever-present but at least there’s a lot of different kinds of recent stuff that fits into that genre.

i will say i do remember playing a retro game called Super Win The Game that i didn’t think was great but like nailed some kind of eerie cold emptiness that i get from a lot of NES games.

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Advanced Super Metroid Returns

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I’m still meaning to check out a few more of the games you’ve mentioned. I think I might wind up liking Shovel Knight if the platforming feels good.

IMO as a person who likes shovel knight, the platforming is distinctly not-good. Like, the bouncing off of enemies thing is alright for a while but shovel knight has no momentum and the whole affair is just very…rote, I guess? It’s very perfunctory.

The appeal to me lies in the music and art, both of which I find to to be very charming. I think that games (and media in general) that rely on charm are often super divisive, because if the charm doesn’t work on you then it’s kinda like “why the fuck would anyone like this game?”

I have such a hard time recommending Shovel Knight because of this, personally.

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no please dont it feels like garbage, the shooting sucks and the dumbass melee counter system just ruins the whole flow of everything
imo its ugly as sin too

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shovel knight is a very good mega man, not a mario

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i think this goes some way to explaining why i do like hollow knight, as well, where some folks hate its controls. i love a mario, but not every platformer has to feel or control that way and idk something about the idea that you’re tiny and weigh very little makes it work in my mind.

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This is a good point. I also don’t like mega man that much

More to the point, I think that Shovel Knight is a Bad Mega Man because his main weapon is a tiny little shovel that causes him to bounce backwards from enemies upon successfully bonking them, which doesn’t feel like…good? I guess? It’s not a strong criticism from me, but I feel like Mega Man works pretty well because he’s got a gun. He feels agile because he can strike from anywhere, whereas Shovel Knight feels like a dope to me.

I will say that I think the boss fights are really, really strong in Shovel Knight. They feel superbly designed around Shovel Knight’s tiny little range. It’s just the Everything Else.

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Rock’s pea shooter was always whack
shovel knight recognized the correct power of Zero Scrooge

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my issue with Shovel Knight is i just find the retro-aping style too wink wink and cutesy and cloying. the game really enjoys being like this collection of references to the retro games everyone’s heard of in ways that mostly feel like “remember this, guys ;-)” and played in a passing one-dimensional way rather than commenting on it or expanding it in some way. also like wtf is a Shovel Knight to begin with. it just feels like Purple Monkey Dishwasher randomness of references to me with no substance. i’ve seen people say that level design is great or whatever but from what i played i found it to be distinctly average. which i guess does distinguish it from a lot of other retro-aping games, but that’s not really a compliment to it or them lol.

i’m actually surprised to see people annoyed by Hollow Knight/thinking it’s unfair because my expectations for the game weren’t great but i ended up finding it to be a very smooth experience… maybe too smooth in some ways. the only real substantial struggles/unfairnesses i found where mostly on optional bosses and i found it far and away much easier than something like Environmental Station Alpha. and the art did really win me over, especially in the City of Tears section (there should be a whole game based off that setting). it’s still a bit too “Metroid mixed with Grimdark Dark Souls stuff” for me but i was nowhere near as bothered by it as a lot of other hyped indie stuff.

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melee is superior to projectile, simple math + simple science
cut them down and smash them round, punish them for defiance

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i agree with you on shovel knight but hollow knight goes out of its way to drain any possible enjoyment you could have, from the gameplay to the music